When ordering certain types of vehicles, such as trucks, a customer may be presented with a wide variety of vehicle configuration options. For example, with respect to a vehicle powertrain, a customer may be able to select from a variety of available engines, transmissions, axles, tires, and the like. While a given manufacturer may offer a wide variety of each of these components, it may not be immediately clear which particular selections are viable for use in combination with other particular selections. With the demand for vehicle configurability during the ordering process comes a need to assist customers in determining what particular vehicle configurations are appropriate.
Some existing systems may review selections made by a customer to determine whether selected components are capable of functioning together, or may recommend certain components based upon prior customer inputs. However, none of the existing systems address the nonintuitive nature of selecting components to optimize performance of a powertrain. Each selected component may affect performance in ways that depend on other component selections, and therefore the effect of choosing a given component may not be easily understood. What is needed is a system that guides a customer through a process of selecting powertrain components that, in combination, will meet performance optimization goals of the customer.